does thermal paste expire?

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Awny2000

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Aug 8, 2015
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Hi.
I have old thermal compound designed and produced by cooler master in 2004. It is sealed and has not been used before.
Can the substance within the compound deteriorate over time? what happens to it? is the performance affected?
why or why not?

also,how big of a difference is there between new thermal compound, and older ones(i.e: 2004)?

thanks.
 
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I suppose that depends on what the therma paste is made of, but as far as I know I've never heard of thermal paste going bad while still in its packaging. I know I have old syringes of Arctic Silver that still work fine. As for that cooler master compound, you'll just have to try it and see. Obviously if it comes out of the bottle all watery and not in paste form then it must have broken down over time.
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bitwright

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Jun 12, 2014
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I suppose that depends on what the therma paste is made of, but as far as I know I've never heard of thermal paste going bad while still in its packaging. I know I have old syringes of Arctic Silver that still work fine. As for that cooler master compound, you'll just have to try it and see. Obviously if it comes out of the bottle all watery and not in paste form then it must have broken down over time.
 
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bitwright

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Jun 12, 2014
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I think Awny2000 is talking about new thermal paste still in the bottle.

As for thermal place that's been applied to a CPU, it can dry and crack over time, reducing it's effectiveness, and as such may need to be replaced every few years. Though given how long a single application can last (5-7+ years), I'm betting most people end up either upgrading their PCs or reapplying thermal paste for other maintenance reasons before the thermal paste on their chips has time to break down.
 
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gheddah

Apr 6, 2018
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Someone gave me a tip to reapply it once a year however lately my CPU temperatures have been hitting it's max buy just running basic applications such as just opening chrome browser, I have AMD FX 4100 build my computer back in 2011 and it serves me well I use stock cooler the fan still runs fine and just checking here if my thermal paste might be old or expired I bought back in 2013.
 
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